Three surprises

It was one of those days that happens once in a while- it starts off innocuously enough but ends up leaving a smile on your face :) I spent the day in school and came home in the evening to not one, not two, but THREE surprises! First, our sort-of new neighbor with whom we think we're having some issues (don't ask- we don't know why either... we've always prided ourselves on being very good neighbors if you ask me), saw me coming home and actually waved *and* smiled at me from her kitchen window. Not a "oops-she-caught-me-looking-at-her" half smile, but what seemed like a genuinely positive acknowledgment of my existence. It actually was kind of nice :) Who knows? next thing you know, she might be bringing us borscht soup (they're Russian)!

Then I was greeted at the door with two mystery packages. We've pretty much received all the gifts we were expecting and neither one of us had ordered anything else so I was kind of puzzled that there were more boxes to be opened. One was a little package of three cute little hair clips from this etsy shop. It arrived without any note and just a name card of the lady who makes and a message addressed to me saying something about my niece. Turns out, it was my sister who wanted to surprise me with hair accessories for Baby! It's probably the one thing we haven't bought since who knows how much hair the little girl's going to have?? :) It was the sweetest gesture and a really pleasant surprise too- thank you, thank you!! (Although all thanks to her, I then squandered almost an hour scouring etsy for other hair accessories vendors- see here and here in particular. So precious!...)

The other larger box contained-- and this almost knocked my socks off-- a Skip*Hop Dash Deluxe diaper bag! It was actually one of the first things Jude and I had wanted to get way back when because it came highly recommended from so many of our friends. But we ended up not buying a designated diaper bag since we figured we could just use our existing Timbuk2 messenger bag and save the money. My friend, Linda, was the one who sent the generous gift and we're truly, truly appreciative :) We really like the Dash because 1) it's designed to look like a hip messenger bag and not a diaper bag so Jude can feel comfortable carrying it- the last thing we want is to carry anything with frou-frou patterns or Winnie-the-Pooh emblazoned all over; 2) it attaches to the stroller so we don't have to be carrying it all the time; and 3) it's versatile such that in the event that we stop using it as a diaper bag, either one of us can just use it as a regular bag. Awesomeness!

Many thanks to the three people who made this day just that little brighter with your lovely gesture and gifts! Probably only one of you-- and you know who you are-- will read this post but it doesn't change the fact that each of you had a part in making today that much sunnier :)